Chapter One—Kaden
After a week of searching—of sleeping in the cramped backseat of my car, of trying to blink myself awake after hours of staring at the open road, of always, always, always questioning what I’d done—I’m finally closing in on my targets.
I ease my 1966 Shelby around the next rain-slicked corner. The muscle car’s ridiculous growl coaxes me to stamp on the gas and hurry things up. I resist the urge. If I crash out here, nobody will be by to help for a long while. I’m very much alone.
The wipers part the rain enough to see the barest hint of the gravel road. I pull off and the headlights paint the trees that hem the narrow track. The wipers continue carving away the worsening downpour as I peer ahead. The woman—a Merlin with no Convocation affiliation—told me she’d seen my quarry pass through the last town and go this way. Three of them: a stocky guy with a shaved head and the face of a bulldog; a girl wearing a studded jacket and nails like claws; and the leader, gaunt, with tattoos crawling up one arm.
The woman hadn’t felt comfortable telling them she was a Merlin. Probably the reason she was alive to tell me.
“What are you doing out here, Nico?” I murmur into the damp silence.
I steer the car into the undergrowth off the path, out of sight of the highway. I shrug on my leather jacket, pulling the cuff over the tattoo circling my wrist. The scar on my face stretches from the cold as I grimace at the downpour.
“You’re really going to take them on alone?”
Astrid sits in the passenger seat. She flicks her blonde hair tipped with purple behind one ear. The bright color clashes with all the black she usually wears. Her eyes—with that soul of fire raging behind them—turns on me. “Even you’re not that dumb.”
“And you’re not real,” I mumble. “I’m just sleep deprived and hallucinating.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m not right.”
I rub my eyes. Bone-deep fatigue weighs me down and I see spots when I pull my hands away. “He’s up to something new. Some worse plan. Or maybe it’s the same plan but I couldn’t stop him the first time. If I don’t stop him now—”
“He’s always up to something new,” Astrid interjects. “The Convocation has Merlins and dragon-kin trained to fight people like him.”
“Not like him. Even you and I, with our unique shifting, couldn’t stop him.”
Astrid tips her hand toward me, the edges of her fingers soft and inviting. “Whiiich brings me back to what I asked. You want to take him on alone? The Dracas guild could have helped you. Or the Tulvetet, Magos, heck, even Dankana, if they stop being jerks long enough.” Her tone softens. “I could have helped you.”
I briefly squeeze my eyes shut. Hallucination or not, that nearly breaks me.
“Astrid, I’m sorry I left without an explanation. I just…I wish I had one. There’s this…this ache inside me won’t go away and I don’t know what’s causing it. I had to go. To stop him. To prove…something. I don’t know what. That’s a garbage excuse, I know. I’m—”
The passenger seat is empty. Astrid is gone. The rain pounds like war drums on the roof.
Before I second-guess anymore, I practically throw myself out of the car and pull my collar up against the downpour. I grab my pre-packed gear from the trunk. Then I hike into the woods.
Despite the leafy canopy dampening the rain, I’m wet in minutes. And cold. I’m never cold. The dragon part of me always keeps me warmer than your average mundane. I’m cold now, though. Stupid sleep deprivation. Must be weakening my powers.
I keep hiking, looking for signs. The road leads to clusters of private pastureland soaked in rain, the ground thick with mud. The tall grass swishes around my legs and soaks my boots. A lone bird calls from the line of trees far across from me.
I shift my eyes to dragon sight and the world snaps into crystal-clear focus. Colors deepen, edges sharpen, things in the distance zoom closer.
After scanning my surroundings I spot it: there’s a second pasture about a half mile down with an abandoned barn or farmhouse built on it. A car is parked in front.
I shift my eyes back and bite my tongue. The urge to go over there right now claws at my insides.
Chump move, kid. You need to focus, plan, then attack. Unless you like your insides pureed, then by all means go ahead.
I shake my head as the voice of my mentor pops up. I really need to get some sleep if ghosts of my past are now making unwelcome introductions.
I return to the trees. I find a spot shielded on one side by a rock formation and start setting up camp. By the time I get a fire going, the rain has slackened and the night has traded places with the dusky light.
I slip into my sleeping bag and lie there, staring at the underside of my tarp. I turn over. Turn over again.
At last I pull out my phone and start at the last texts Astrid sent:
U coming to pick us up?
Holly says you left. Where r you???
Kaden, please tell me where you are
Then three missed calls before finally:
Why did you leave without saying goodbye?
I clench my phone so hard the plastic squeaks. All week I’ve wanted to text her back. But what would I say? The truth? That I don’t really know? Or more honestly, that I’d gotten too close. Too close to Astrid, to the guilds, to their belief, Astrid’s belief, that I was a good person. It was suffocating.
Still, my finger hovers over the Return Call button, then presses.
No Service
I stare at the blinking words before shutting the phone off and falling into a restless sleep.
I wake up with dawn on the horizon, heart pounding. As I pull myself up I can tell I’m still exhausted. A few hours’ rest isn’t going to help much, but I’m as ready as I’m going to be.
I pocket my phone but leave the rest of my things behind as I walk over to the farmhouse. It takes only a moment to scan the surroundings. The three of them came alone. No Slayer lackeys to back them up.
My hands shake but I clench them into fists and stride up the path the car made until I’m standing in front of the sagging porch.
“Knock knock,” I yell.
“Hunter!”
Jud’s come from around the side of the house, warily facing me. His beady eyes skip from me to over my shoulder. “Come to die all by yourself?”
I wave a dismissive hand. “I’m here for Nico. I don’t need his pet.”
Jud snarls. This is too easy. Any comment about Jud being Nico’s attack dog is guaranteed to get the guy riled up enough to make a mistake. I wait for him to cast his Slayer magic and come at me, but he still guardedly holds his ground. I frown.
“Can you be a good boy and go fetch him, Jud?”
He still doesn’t attack. This is weird. I’m not one to make fun of the intelligence anyone’s born with, but Jud’s always been governed more by violent impulse than rational thought.
I look closer. His wary stance. His hesitation to attack. The slightest waver in his voice when he spoke. It clicks and I laugh. “Are you scared of little ’ol me, Jud? I didn’t think you’d learned to be properly scared of anything.”
“Nico’s not here.”
I stop laughing. “Where is he?”
It’s Jud’s turn to give an ugly laugh. “Doing something far more important than dealing with you. You’re not his only problem.”
“I’m about to be his biggest problem, though.”
“He was so disappointed in you.”
I stop walking toward Jud. “Excuse me?”
“He expected a lot more from the Slayer’s Bane after all you’ve done.” Jud’s normal, maniacal cackle returns. “Me, I couldn’t care less as long as you’re dead. But Nico wanted a real fight. He wanted someone who could challenge him. So many of the dragon-kin and others in the Convocation have gone soft and breakable. But not you.” He licks his lips. “And not that treat that tags along with you. Sweet, ignorant little dragon-kin.”
I grind my teeth together. “Keep your dirty mouth shut.”
Jud’s eyes flicker to my hands. “You gonna stop me? Gonna shift into that dragon?”
The reason for Jud’s hesitation becomes clear. “Aw, does my big, bad dragon scare you? Well, if Nico isn’t here, then I’ll have to wait. In the meantime, you and I can settle our differences.”
I shift my hands to claws. They remain strangely cold.
I look down at my hands. They’re still my normal, tanned, very human hands.
I try shifting again. Nothing. I can’t even shift to my dragon sight like I did last night.
My heart nearly stops. This can’t be happening.
Only brand new dragon-kin have trouble shifting. Not someone who’s been doing it for years. Certainly not right now, at the worst possible time.
“Seems you’re having trouble, Slayer’s Bane.”
Jud has a nasty grin on his face. He takes a step toward me, then another, growing bolder when it’s clear I can’t shift. “Nico thought this might happen. He told us that shifting to your full dragon might change you, make it harder for a while. What’s the matter? Your witty bitty magic tired?”
I stumble back as he stalks closer. I’m too shocked to be scared. This is a nightmare, and soon I’ll wake up, that’s all. Only, I feel every bit of the biting cold and the fear clenching my lungs. Something has gone terribly, horribly wrong.
“Call me a pet again,” Jud snarls. “Go ahead, call me that one more time, just one, before I kill you.”
I don’t call him that. I do what I used to never do and run.
Jud’s cackle rings in my ears, before being drowned out by the swishing grass as I tear through the pasture. Mud clings to my boots, weighing them down and making my legs burn. Air tears at my lungs.
I hear a short, high whistle.
A dark blur breaks through the grass on my right and slams into my side. There’s sharp pain as one of my ribs snaps. My body is weightless for the span of an agonizing breath before I hit the mud and roll to a stop. The stench of rancid flesh makes me want to vomit and I know exactly what’s attacked me before I raise my head.
A Hallow—one of the Slayer Brian’s hellish creations—paces in front of me. Sharpened teeth jut from a semi-elongated mouth dripping saliva. It’s the size of a man, covered entirely in dragon scales. And unlike the only other Hallow I’ve faced, this one looks fully formed and healthy.
I shove aside the pain in my ribs—I’ve had worse—and stagger to my feet. I have no dragon shifting and no knives, but I’ll be damned if I can’t still fight.
“Looks like I’m not the pet anymore, am I?” Jud rips aside the grass and stands beside the Hallow. His beady eyes glitter triumphantly. “So call me that again, I dare you.”
“It seems you have a complex, Jud,” I shoot off before my brain informs me that taunting him is a terrible idea. “You should get that checked out. Whenever Nico lets you off the leash—”
Jud whistles and the Hallow leaps. I forget I don’t have scales a moment before its claws tear savage strips of flesh off the tops of my forearms. I swallow my scream and roundhouse kick it, only managing to bruise my foot against its armor-hard scales. The Hallow swivels its long body back around, but this time it’s Jud who attacks, barreling into me and throwing me to the ground.
“Say it again!” His knees pin my arms to the muddy ground while his meaty fist pounds my check. “Open your filthy mouth and say it again!”
My magic, my shifting, nothing is working. The only reason I’m still alive is Jud hasn’t used his Slayer magic and crushed my skull between his fingers. He wants me to suffer.
“I can’t hear you!”
A blood vessel ruptures behind my eye. My breathing is reduced to gurgling spit as he punches my throat, hits my arm so hard I hear a grisly snap. I’m all pain. Pain and regret that I didn’t say goodbye to Astrid. To anyone.
Jud raises both fists high over his head. He’s panting, face filled with mad fervor.
“Come on. Say it one more time before I break your skull. You won’t ever call me that again. Not ever.”
Blood leaks into my throat when I move my lips. Even opening my mouth is painful. My jaw might be broken. How ironic. Snark was arguably my greatest power and it’s one of the last things to leave me.
Jud sucks in a sharp, ragged breath. “Fine then.”
He brings his fists down.
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